Hopper feeder for singly dispensing short rods or tubes

Abstract

For feeding short rods, which term includes tubes, such as clinical thermometer tubes with bulbs at one end, a feeding hopper has downwardly-converging bottom walls terminating in an elongated gap between their lower edges forming an elongated slot. Reciprocable horizontally beneath the slot is fluid-pressure-operated ejector plunger which feeds, one at a time, the short rods to a horizontal receiver composed of a pair of spaced parallel guide bars separated by a distance large enough to pass the rod but to detain the bulb, whereupon the rod pivots around the detained bulb to swing downward into the slot and comes to rest between the bars with the bulb uppermost and the rod suspended vertically from the bars. Agitating mechanism including a pair of alternately-reciprocable agitator slides mounted side by side in spaced relationship beneath the gap to closely select and receive the rods one at a time by moving upward and downward through the slot and, also intermittently shakes the stack of rods in the hopper so as to force them into mutually parallel horizontal positions, thereby preventing jamming of the rods in or arching together above the slot.

I claim: 
     
       1. A hopper feeder for singly-moving short rod workpieces comprising a supporting structure,   a workpiece-receiving hopper mounted on said structure and having spaced side walls and inclined downwardly-converging bottom walls defining a workpiece chamber with an elongated outlet opening disposed therebelow and a discharge opening disposed in spaced relationship thereto,   a pair of workpiece agitator members disposed side by side in spaced parallel relationship below said outlet opening and movable relatively to one another upward and downward in opposite directions past said outlet opening into and out of said workpiece chamber,   power-operated means for moving said workpiece agitator members upward and downward relatively to one another past said outlet opening,   a workpiece receiver mounted adjacent said hopper in alignment with said workpiece discharge opening,   a workpiece ejector mounted between said agitator members for substantially horizontal reciprocation between positions adjacent said outlet opening and said discharge opening respectively to push a single workpiece from said position adjacent said outlet opening to said position adjacent and through said discharge opening onto said workpiece receiver,   and power-operated means for reciprocating said workpiece ejector horizontally across said outlet opening in timed relationship with said power-operated means for moving said workpiece agitator.   
     
     
       2. A hopper feeder, according to claim 1, wherein said agitator members include agitator plates with opposite top workpiece-engaging surfaces inclined away from one another. 
     
     
       3. A hopper feeder, according to claim 1, wherein said workpiece agitator-moving means includes a pair of independently-movable fluid pressure reciprocatory motors, one of said motors being operatively connected to each agitator member. 
     
     
       4. A hopper feeder, according to claim 1, wherein the workpiece has an enlargement forming a head near one end thereof, wherein said workpiece receiver includes a pair of elongated workpiece-receiving elements disposed in spaced parallel horizontal relationship with the spacing therebetween greater than the thickness of the rod workpiece but less than the thickness of the head upon the rod workpiece, whereby the rod portion of the workpiece deposited by the workpiece ejector upon the workpiece receiver swings downward through the space between said workpiece receiving elements while pivoting around the workpiece head, wherein a workpiece dispenser is disposed below said workpiece receiver in horizontally and vertically-spaced relationship therewith, wherein an inclined ejected workpiece runway aligned with said workpiece receiver extends downward therefrom to said dispenser, and wherein said ejected workpiece runway includes a pair of elongated members disposed in the same spaced parallel relationship as said workpiece receiving elements and are alignedly connected thereto.